One girl with Crohns disease endeavouring to stay well through clean eating.

low fat

Yes the invention test… What to do with a bunch of bananas which are over ripe and a punnet of blueberries which are begging to be used in something more interesting and a smoothie, the answer is cake! Well more cake-bread.

Blueberry banana breadIngredients

4 ripe bananas

3 eggs

225g quinoa flour

1 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp honey

1 tsp vanilla essence

60ml melted coconut oil

1 tsp ground cinnamon

125g fresh blueberries

Cooking Method

Turn the oven onto 170c

Line a loaf tin with grease proof paper

Mash the bananas with a fork in a bowl and add all the wet ingredients – honey, eggs, vanilla essence and coconut oil. Mix together

In a seperate bowl combine all the dry ingridents – flour, baking powder and cinnamon

Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well

Add the blueberries and stir gently

Pour the mixture into the loaf tin

Place in the oven and cook for 55 minutes

Cool before cutting

The cake batter should have a thick consistencyPour the batter into a loaf tinPreparation time: 10 minutes

A twist on the standard turkey chilli which is a staple in my household, is Moroccan turkey with chickpeas. Instead of chilli heat the flavour comes from the blend of spices which infuses the meat and chickpeas.

Great served with a green salad, couscous, flat bread and mint and yogurt dip, or brown rice or quinoa.Moroccan turkey with chickpeas

Moroccan spice blend

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Ingredients

1 pack of ground turkey breast

1 can of drained chickpeas

1 carton of passata

1 onion finely chopped

1 red pepper finely chopped

2 carrots finely chopped

2 tbsps of coconut oil

1 tsp salt

Cooking Method

Blend all the spices together and mix with I tablespoon of coconut oil

With the other tablespoon of coconut oil fry the onions, pepper and carrots and set aside.

Heat the spices and coconut oil mix in a non stick pan and fry the turkey mince, once cooked through add the salt, vegetables, chickpeas and passata.

I love it when I ask the kids what they’d like for dinner and the suggestions that come back are all healthy.

Yesterday my son requested prawn and chicken Thai curry and today my daughter requested “that yummy stuff with the rounds beans in it”. It took me a minute to deduce she meant chick peas, so of course I made it for her – what she meant was stew.

Pumpkin, beef and chickpea stew
The best thing about this stew is that it uses seasonal ingredients as its flavour base – pumpkins and tons of fresh turmeric.

Ingredients

500g organic stewing beef

1 small pumpkin or squash. I used one small blue ballet pumpkin

100g of fresh turmeric fingers

1 tin of tomatoes

1 onion

1 tin of chickpeas in water

1 litre of organic beef stock

1 clove of garlic

Cooking method

Melt the coconut oil and brown the meat in a pan

Add the browned meat to a slow cooker

In the same pan brown the onion and garlic which can be chopped roughly into strips

Once soft also add this to the slow cooker

Add the tomatoes, chickpeas and beef stock and stir

Peel and chop the squash/pumpkin into cubes and also add to the pan along with the turmeric which apart from washing needs no prep.

As the nights draw in and the heating is turned on to keep the chill at bay my food choices immediately turn to hearty, bone-warming meals which quite often means casseroles, stews and roasts.

Tonight was one of those nights so I dusted off the slow cooker and made my favourite casserole.

Even though it’s packed with veggies – seven to be exact, it’s a firm family favourite evidenced by my two children hoovering it up in minutes!!

Cooking in a slow cooker (crockpot) doesn’t take much brain power as you literally chuck all the ingredients in the pot and let the cooking process create the magic. The real test is being patient and letting the casserole cook for five hours plus.

Chicken and chickpea casseroleIngredients:

6-8 filleted chicken thighs

3 tbsps coconut oil

1 carton of passata

2 tsps cumin seeds

2 tsps coriander seeds

2 Garlic cloves

1 tbsp rock salt

1 onion

1 courgette

200g chopped swede

Handful of mushrooms

3 carrots

200g chopped aubergine

1 red pepper

1 tbsp onion salt

200ml cold water.

Cooking method

Brown off the chicken thighs in the coconut oil

In a pestle and mortar mash the rock salt, garlic, cumin seeds and coriander seeds into a paste and add to the slow cooker along with the chicken and drained chickpeas

Chop all the vegetables into cubes and add to the slow cooker along with the passata and onion salt.